There are times when you are watch a movie and wonder "Why have I never seen this before?" or "How has nobody told me about this?" or "This is fucking nuts". That is what happened to me when I sat down with my family to watch Matthew Bright's Freeway.
After her crack-whore, prostitute mother and pedophile crack-head step-dad are arrested for the things that describe them, illiterate high-schooler Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) decides the time is right to skip town for Grandma's house before child services shows up. With her red basket in hand, Vanessa sets out on a modern day tweaker retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.
Soon after picking up a gun and some lovin from her boyfriend Chopper, Vanessa's car breaks down on the freeway. Luckily a kindly gentleman by the name of Bob Wolverton (Keifer Sutherland) stops to help her out with a ride. Bob is a psychologist for disturbed and abused children. He recognizes the pain in Vanessa and tries advanced theraputic questioning to ease her pain. But Vanessa notices Bob is a little too interested in her answers. The jig is up after Bob promises to hold off on sex with her body until after he's killed her. As it turns out, Bob is a serial-killer pedophile looking to eat up another downtrodden girl.
It's a good thing Chopper gave Vanessa a loaded gun. She shoots Bob 5 times, two in the head, and leaves him for dead on the side of the road. After wiping the blood off and getting a bite to eat she is arrested for attempted murder because it turns out Bob survived as a horribly scarred, robot-voiced monster who has to constantly wipe the spit away from his gaping mouth.
Vanessa is sent to juvie while the courts decide to try her as an adult. Vanessa soon becomes alpha dog in juvie after beating the shit out of a bitch trying to put the moves on her. Vanessa wasn't meant to be caged, so she fashions a shank and slashes up a guard for his keys. She breaks out and flees to Grandma's.
Since we all know the story of Riding Hood, imagine what is waiting for Vanessa at Grandma's house. It's scarier than you might think.
It in the end Freeway is a feel good coming of age story about a girl shedding her scary past with her parents for an even scarier one on the road. Did I mention this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen?
The best review I can come up with for it, beside Siskel and Ebert's "Two Thumbs Up" on the cover, is from my mother who said "I have never seen a movie like that ever."
This is the movie Reese Witherspoon made right before Fear. Fear is fucked up. Freeway is fuckeder upper.
